NEW General Chatting Thread

I think the bigger issue is that a lot of churches only teach superficial level doctrine, the milk, rather than solid food. This leaves people with a limited understanding and relying on tradition rather than scripture.

Yeah it is all over X and the Catholics, Japanese, Weebs, Anime lovers, all like it while of course some Protestants and Japan or Anime haters dislike it.

I think it is a smart marketing strategy, and looks cute, but also a distraction from a church that is "blessing" pederasts, removed the Holy water from the fonts for fear of the Wu flu, and recommend the death peck.

Vigiano is kind of right on this, although his insistence they didn't kick him out validly is comical. He should be proud to be branded a heretic by the state religion, like Christ was Himself by the leaders of His state religion.

A related topic is the point about graven images. Last year I returned to my home country and visited many churches and prayed a lot. But in chapels full of statues the prayers have no effect because the statues are distracting. On the other hand if it is a tall, spacious church with only a few statues to the side, but with a Holy water font, real incense, candles, an altar lamp, some soft organ music, a glass in lead with non too figurative depictions such as a cross... now that is just right to feel the Divine Presence.

We have a large part of the old testament describing how to make the Temple, and it should be of shiny bronze, good wood, silver, gold, lamps of olive oil, and lots of incense, all to help feel the Divine Presence without resorting to graven images (i.e statues).

Catholic churches tend to err too much to one side of being too statuesque, and Protestant ones too much to the other, to be almost barren. Unfortunately Catholic churches in Japan tend to be disappointing close to Protestant ones. I have seen Shinto shines with lit candles, but no Japanese churches with lit candles so far.

Hmmm, feeling might indeed not be correct, because it is much more than that. It is more about the Presence of God, Christ and especially the Holy Spirit as described in the Psalms (such as 55 for example), or as suggested at the end of Jude 1. Which comes from faith, but also prayer, and for which the old testament Temple attributes are helpful. At least they definitely help me. Maybe my body isn't yet very Temple like yet, so I still need some external support. But let's not get into theological discussions that could divide us. With God everything is personal and our experiences will differ.

As for Luce, I am a bit surprised that the character got such a response with almost everyone who can drawing their own version. If they can draw that they should perhaps try to collaborate to draw the New Testament in Anime style in stead.

I did once see some YouTube of an Asian man licking the feet of a life size cartboard cut out of an anime girl. That is really idolatry, but from this example, we can see that God has forbidden idolatry for our benefit. The guy didn't seem to realize how much he humiliated himself. But the rage about Luce characters doesn't seem to go that far so I think God will use it to help propagate His Will also here on Earth.

Well it is so that God is present with His people, even if they cannot feel Him. Like the sun is hidden behind the clouds. Those "clouds" are mostly due to daily concerns for this world. We can't all be monks or nuns.

The link between Luce and Lucifer is only semantic, light versus light bearer. I didn't know the character was designed by pederasts, which is a lot more concerning. They likely already made the porn versions too...

I was also baptized in a Roman church, and I think they lost the right to be called "Catholic" around the time of Constantine. While the good emperor had a view to unify Christianity the effect was to empover it and turn it into a state religion, which Christ nor the apostles intended. Once I found the Didache I became aware of the intended way: localized churches, like the 7 first ones in the Revelation.

A religious state is not a state religion. I would say the former is good and the latter is not good since it often leads to abuses of power, and oppression. The Sanhedrin was the state religion of Judea...

Or said otherwise it is good to have princes who submit themselves to God and lead by example. Our Lord, while He sometimes did lash out in anger, did never convert anyone by force. The same cannot be said of certain other founders of certain religions.

Only God is truly righteous. We can and should try but the large majority will mess up eventually. That's why we need decentralization in everything. To avoid too much power in the hands of one person and to limit the damage.

But I agree that anyone who has a leadership position needs a moral guideline.